‘do you expect to arrive by publishing? that is not easy.’

‘the matter of publication is very complex, despite its apparent simplicity. do you merely want to publish?’ that is easy. or do you expect to ‘arrive’ by publishing? that is not easy’ 
- for once maxime du camp gives flaubert some good advice.

it was not so easy for flaubert to arrive. he arrives with his first published book true but it takes him until he is 30. it takes the entire of francis steegmuller’s the letters of gustave flaubert 1830-1857.

 at least, unlike the goncourts, after all his efforts he gets to arrive.

but having arrived however hard he works he cannot hit the magic spot again. he is not a realist like his contemporaries, of the school of zola, the one zola learnt from the goncourts, but for flaubert art is ‘to do what nature does... to set us dreaming’.

‘you are lucky, you poets: you have an outlet in your verse. when something troubles you, you spit out a sonnet.’ - flaubert to his lover louise colet.

howard is down in sunny pop(u)lar. horsemouth is up in the salt marshes. they are sundered by lockdown and social distancing legislation right at the point in the year where they would have the time and inclination to get together and do some work.

howard (however) has been busy and has been sending over new tracks by email (and very good they sound too). very soon he will be cycling up with a final demo CD. worryingly one of the new songs is an excellent fingerpicking guitar piece (that’s horsemouth out of job).

the mixing down of everything proceeds apace too. soon it will be time to send the tracks for the album off for mastering and then the terrible cull must happen where they chose which tracks will actually go on the physical CD (and which will be relegated to soundcloud).

when the emails arrive horsemouth proposes but ultimately howard disposes. fortunately howard's judgement is good. it is by far the best working partnership horsemouth has ever been involved in.

horsemouth guesses they will produce a physical CD once again (to go with the various downloads) at least then they can be sure they have given it to people or sold it. it enables them to get some art or photography on the cover. 

horsemouth does not expect to arrive as a result of having made it. (that would be a dreadful accident were that to happen to him at this stage of his life). he does expect to get a clearer view of what it is he is involved in making. some people expect a victory parade (but these are always anti-climaxes), horsemouth just likes the work.



howard mentioned listening to this while cycling round brockwell park when he lived down there. horsemouth lived in brixton for about a year (er. like about 25 years ago) he used to walk round brockwell park a lot in the summer. he would go there to read.